


take a deep breath, make the world a little colourful

by steepedinwords



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer Has Anxiety (Julie and the Phantoms), Alex and Julie being siblings, Baking, Everyone Is Alive, JATP Secret Santa 2020, M/M, Meet-Cute, minor background Julie/Luke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steepedinwords/pseuds/steepedinwords
Summary: Alex deals with some anxiety via too much baking, and makes a friend."This is what stress baking when you wake up at 3 am gets you, he thinks. He should have just taken Luke and Reggie up on their offer for him to call when he got anxious, but no, he had to plow through the whole household’s supply of butter and flour and sugar making every last one of his comfort foods, and now what’s he supposed to do with all of it?"
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 164





	take a deep breath, make the world a little colourful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bookworm1063](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookworm1063/gifts).



> A gift for @fcstation1063 on tumblr for the JATP Secret Santa gift exchange. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Title is from Jukebox the Ghost's "Colourful."
> 
> This story takes place in a world in which the boys aren't dead. Alex is a bit anxious in the beginning of this, but he's gonna be fine.

Well, this is a disaster.

Alex sets the last tray of gingersnaps down on top of the stove, a waft of hot air coming up from the oven as he closes it with a bump of his hip. The kitchen smells like hot sugar and spices. He turns to survey the wreckage of the room, which looks like a flour bomb has exploded in it. Normally-white tiled floors have gone greyish and sticky with icing sugar residue, the sink is piled with mixing bowls and dishes because he’s bad at cleaning up as he works, and there are baked goods cooling on every remaining inch of counter space and on top of the fridge for good measure. A perfectly crimped golden apple pie with a lattice top. Two loaves of bread, because he hadn’t gotten the scoring right on the first one and needed to try again. And dozens of cookies - gingersnaps, chocolate pecan caramel, chocolate chip, lebkuchen spice, and linzer cookies. Never mind that it’s only the beginning of September, and his dad always insists that his oma’s linzer cookie recipe was only for Christmas.

Well, Dad’s not here, and Alex can make Christmas cookies to cope with his problems if he wants to. He’s an adult. Theoretically.

Alex takes in the work of his hands and groans, sliding down the oven door to sit on the dirty floor, head in his hands. Something sticky catches in his hair and he pulls his hand away to find caramel still coating his fingers. Whatever. Too tired for this, he puts his head back in his hands, unable to look at the mess in the kitchen any more. There’s flour on his favourite pajamas and caramel stuck in his hair and too many baked goods everywhere, and if he eats another cookie, he’s either going to feel really sick or start acting like Reggie on a sugar high. 

This is what stress baking when you wake up at 3 am gets you, he thinks. He should have just taken Luke and Reggie up on their offer for him to call when he got anxious, but no, he had to plow through the whole household’s supply of butter and flour and sugar making every last one of his comfort foods, and now what’s he supposed to do with all of it?

He might be freaking out. A little bit.

Okay, focus. Luke and Reggie won’t be back in town for another week, and in the meantime, there’s no way Alex can finish all of this food. Which would have been good to think of hours ago, but he’d gotten absorbed in the detail work on the pie and then the first batch of bread had sort of failed a little bit and then he got onto the Christmas cookies and got kind of distracted from any reasonable train of thought. So.

They don’t have a freezer big enough to hold all of this either. And the responsible part of Alex revolts at the thought of letting any of it go stale.

It’s really Luke and Reggie’s fault, he decides. Luke stayed in town just long enough to help Alex move into the rental house, but then he’d decided to blow off the first week of their university classes to go hiking with Reggie and his family. Mostly to keep Reggie from being stuck alone with his parents’ bickering, but still. And Reggie’s skipping that first week too, because he couldn’t get out of the family obligation, and so Alex has added worrying about his best friends failing all their classes to the list of Things That Are Stressing Me Out. Never mind that everyone said the first week probably didn’t cover anything important. True, his own first day yesterday had mostly just been a professor reading the syllabus out loud in every class before dismissing everyone early, but they’re probably going to start covering actual material soon, and what if Luke and Reggie fall behind because they miss that?

Alex scrapes his hair out of tired, gritty eyes, blowing out a frustrated breath as the caramel gets stuck in his hair again. It’s like they’re not even trying to take this seriously. He knows distantly that maybe he’s being unfair to his friends, but - it’s the start of their whole university careers and he feels like the only way not to blow it is to do what got him through high school. Show up to every class early, take lots of notes, use too many highlighters, hide in the bathroom to do breathing exercises between classes when the anxiety makes his chest feel too tight. It’s gotten him this far, and he’s too panicky at the thought of easing up to even consider doing something like skipping out on class. Not when it feels like there’s so much at stake.

And he’s just gotten out of his parents’ house, too, and while he’d been relieved and excited to move away, living on his own is pretty intimidating. While living with his parents had felt stifling for the last few years, it was at least familiar. They weren’t terrible to him or anything; they love him, and Alex knows that, but there were also expectations for how he should dress and act and where he should go and when he’d freaking eat meals, and it had gotten to be a bit too much. Away from home, he’d been so excited to finally discover what kind of person he, Alex, wants to be - but that thought is also kind of terrifying. He’s only eighteen. How the heck is he supposed to figure out everything about adulthood?

Alex takes a deep, fortifying breath, holds it for a count of seven, blows it out. Okay. He can do this. He  _ is _ an adult, the giant pile of stress baking to the contrary notwithstanding, and he can figure this out. 

He looks up, gaze wandering across the kitchen and skipping from dirty dishes to stacks of cookies to the fridge that’s already covered in Luke’s dorky word magnets and fliers for music gigs and photos of family and a green “Welcome to the Neighbourhood” postcard.

Wait.

Five minutes later, he’s still sitting on the floor as he finishes typing up a post on the neighbourhood bulletin app. He takes another deep breath and hits “publish.”

_ I just did way too much baking and I need someone to help eat it. If you would like free cookies, DM me and I’ll send you the address. _

Okay.

Making friends in the neighbourhood, right? They’d been talking about that. It’s always good to make connections and stuff, if only so the neighbours don’t end up making noise complaints when the band practice sessions run too late or loud. 

Alex sighs, shoves up off the ground, and goes to take a shower and wash off the sweat of too many hours spent in a warm kitchen. He’s halfway through washing his hair, starting to feel sort of relaxed under the hot water, when it hits him that he’s basically asked strangers to come to his house. His heart jumps into his throat as he pictures several different ways this could go horribly. This is a bad idea. This is how you get murdered. You lure people in with free cookies and then they know where you live and they could use their insider knowledge of the fact that you stay up all night baking to break in and rob you, and then you’re all alone without your best friends and with a burglar in the house, and yeah, no. Making friends in the neighbourhood is one thing. This is probably just not going to end well.

Alex shuts off the water, wraps a towel hastily around himself, and snatches up his phone from the bathroom counter. He pulls up the app with shaking fingers and hits the “delete post” button, just as a direct message pops up in his inbox.

Crap.

Okay. One response. Hopefully he took the post down soon enough that no one else saw it; it’s the middle of the day, after all. His thumb hovers over the new message, hesitating, before he opens it.

It’s from someone named Willie. The app doesn’t use profile pictures or last names, so that really doesn’t give Alex much.

_ Cookies sound great, I’m in! Where should I meet you? If you’re more comfortable with it, we could meet up somewhere in public? _

Alex’s shoulders comes down a little from their tensed hunch. Oh. Why didn’t he think of that. It’s a good sign that this other person wants him to feel safe. Should he respond?

It’s probably fine. It’s fine.

_ Sure, yes, that sounds good _ , he writes back, and names a park nearby. They decide to meet up in an hour, because Alex has class tonight and he wants to get this over with. He leaves the bathroom to go get dressed properly, dropping his phone on the bed and breathing steadily to try stave off the anxiety that’s trying to crawl its way up his throat again. This is fine. He’ll get rid of a bunch of these cookies, and this Willie person will be happy about it because cookies, and maybe everything will be fine.

Just in case, though, he texts Julie. 

_ Hey Jules _

_ so uh im meeting up with a stranger in a bit and could use someone to come along for like. Safety? are u free at 2? _

Julie texts back a  _ yes _ and a bunch of confused smiley faces and exclamation marks, but he’s busy getting dressed so he just texts back that he’ll explain on the way.

Julie’s honestly half the reason he, Alex, and Reggie moved to this part of the city. They knew her from school, and from all the performances they’d dragged each other to over the years, and Luke’s still trying to get her to join their band. It’s nice to live next door to the Molinas, partly because it means they all get more Julie time, and partly because now Luke and Julie take their not-dates (made up of flirting via music and “platonic” handholding) to the Molinas’ garage most of the time, so Alex doesn’t have to overhear them FaceTiming all the time like he used to, which was getting a little tiring. And Julie’s just generally awesome - case in point, where she’s agreed to come along in a possibly awkward/dangerous situation, because she’s the best pseudo-sister he could want.

Julie’s car pulls up outside just as Alex finished packing a couple of paper plates with cookies. He balances them precariously in one arm as he locks the front door and then slides into shotgun in Julie’s car. She’s leaning with one arm on the wheel, looking mischievous, hair falling in wild curls around her face. 

“So what is this? Are you selling cookies on the internet now?” she asks, pulling out into the street. Alex sighs and explains the whole situation.

“Aleeeeex.” Julie sticks out her lower lip in a pout. “You had extra cookies, and your first instinct was  _ hey, I should give these away to strangers on the internet _ , and not  _ hey, the Molinas live right next door and Julie’s awesome and deserves cookies because she does stuff like drive me to the grocery store -  _ ”

“That was one time!”

“  _ \- so obviously I should bring Julie the leftover baking? _ Honestly, Alex, I thought we were friends.”

He laughs at her dramatics, earning a satisfied little smirk from Julie. He knows what she’s doing, talking him down like this, and he can’t even be mad about it. “Hey, you were the first person I thought of to protect me from possible scary people. That’s something.”

“True.” Julie tilts her head. “You could have just brought the cookies to class with you.”

Alex facepalms. “Ugh, why didn’t I think of that. Well, there’s still a ton at home.” He sighs. “I was… kinda up half the night stress baking.”

“You okay, bro?” Julie signals, turning in towards the park, and Alex sighs again, deeper.

“Not… really? You know how I get. There’s a lot going on, a lot of changes. I don’t like change.”

Julie pulls into a parking space, stopping the car, and then reaches over to grab Alex in a half-hug, not even bothering to point out that college was a change that Alex literally signed up for. The stack of paper plates on his lap teeters dangerously, but Alex leans into the hug, because honestly, he’d really needed one. Between anxiety about school and half his friend group being out of town and everything else, the tension has been building in him so much he kind of wants to cry.

He’s not gonna cry, though. He’s going to bring these perfectly lovely out-of-season Christmas cookies to a random person he found on the internet, and Julie Molina’s going to be at his back to protect him, and everything is going to be fine.

The air in the park smells like freshly-cut grass. There aren’t a lot of people around; it’s a Thursday afternoon, after all. They head towards the gazebo where the cookie handoff is supposed to take place. No one is there yet. Julie plants herself against the latticed half-wall around the structure, looking around as if she’s actually planning for trouble, and Alex retreats out of the sunshine into the shade of the gazebo, looking around. 

There’s a rattle and scrape behind them on the sidewalk, and Alex turns to see the hottest guy he’s ever laid eyes on gliding up on a skateboard. He’s slim and beautiful, with long, flowing dark hair tucked under a helmet, wearing bright clothes and a perfect grin, and he comes to a stop with a little half-spin of his board that looks effortless. 

“Hey, you the cookie guy?” the newcomer calls, and Alex steps forward, hands sweating, desperately trying to project coolness. Cool. Calm. He can do this. This is fine, everything’s fine. “Ye-”

He misses the step down from the gazebo floor and there’s a confusing moment where he’s looking up at the blue, blue September sky and kind of seeing stars at the same time as he comes down hard on his butt, jarring enough to knock the breath out of him. There’s a scuffle of feet on either side of him, and he takes a breath, trying to gather his wits, and looks down at the plates of cookies in his arms.

Hey, he didn’t drop any of them! Score.

“Oh man, you all right?”

Alex looks up, still half-dazed by the violent assertion of gravity, by sunlight and the embarrassment that inevitably follows wiping out in front of an attractive stranger, and sees a hand extended to him. He reaches up, lets Willie grip his hand, gets to his feet, holding the cookies carefully and trying not to groan at the way he can already feel the bruises forming along his backside. The hand in his is strong, calloused, and Alex doesn’t want to let go. He looks up, meeting friendly dark eyes and a warm smile, and can’t help but meet the smile with one of this own.

“The taller they are, the harder they fall,” Julie mutters off to the side, and Alex shoots her a Look. She grins back unrepentantly. “So this is your mystery cookie guy. Hi, Willie.”

“You two know each other?” Alex still feels dazed, though that might be the lingering effects of Willie’s smile. 

“Oh yeah,” Willie says easily. “Julie’s dad used to babysit me when I was a kid.”

“Yeah, he’s not an axe murderer, he's lived down the block from us forever,” Julie says, socking Alex on the arm gently. “Imma just… go over there and text Flynn for a bit, you guys have fun!”

She walks off, laughing to herself, and Alex’s face, which had felt like it was cooling down after the literal falling-down embarrassment, instantly feels aflame again, because she’s obviously leaving him and Willie together because she is The Worst.

“Anyway,” he says hastily to Willie, who’s been watching this bit of by-play with a smile. “You - I - well. Cookies?”

He holds up the stack of plates and Willie laughs. It’s a delighted almost-chortle of a laugh, and Alex wants nothing more than to hear it again, immediately. They sit down on the grass and Alex pushes the cookies towards Willie, who immediately falls on them like he’s starving. Alex laughs a little, hugging his knees in to his chest as he watches his new friend shove an entire linzer cookie in his mouth, powdered sugar clinging to his lips. It’s very distracting. Willie closes his eyes with a contented expression for a moment, then licks the sugar off, and okay, that’s not helping at all with Alex’s situation. How is this guy so cute.

“You’re not having any?” Willie asks, gesturing with another cookie. Alex shakes his head.

“Nah, I’ve been eating them all morning,” he confesses wryly. Come to think of it, that might explain the way his stomach feels. Or it could just be the effect of watching the cute boy across from him polish off yet another cookie. “I was stress baking half the night.” He’s probably over-explaining, but he can’t help it. Willie seems nice. Sympathetic. “I started college yesterday and… yeah.” He waves a hand at the steadily-disappearing pile of baking. “This is what happens when I get stressed.”

Willie’s face lights up, and he swallows. “Oh hey, dude, maybe that’s why you look familiar! What college?”

Alex tells him, and Willie snaps his fingers. “Hey, me too! I’m majoring in performance arts and photography. How ‘bout you?” He cocks his head, bright eyes taking Alex in. “Math?”

Alex splutters a laugh. “I’m gay, I can’t do math,” he says automatically, and oh, huh. Willie’s expression gets brighter, if that’s possible, a grin slowly spreading over his face. Alex kind of feels like he’s looking at the sun; the back of his neck is hot. “I’m majoring in music.”

“Cool.” Willie beams at him, and then they’re both smiling softly at each other and Alex takes a cookie despite himself, because the linzer cookies  _ are _ his favourite and they’re barely a mouthful. Willie tries one of the chocolate pecan ones and makes a delighted sound around his first bite. “Dude, your baking is awesome, you gotta teach me how to make these.”

“Thanks,” Alex says, pleased, and then, “You could come over and help me bake next time? I promise it won’t be at three in the morning.”

Willie laces his fingers around his knee and leans back, grinning. “Hey, yeah, I’d like that. And… maybe I could show you some tricks in return?”

He taps his skateboard, resting beside him, and Alex gulps. He tried skateboarding once, when Reggie was into it, and that attempt had ended in bruises and a broken collarbone. But a cute boy is offering to spend time with him and Alex is so weak for that smile. He’s not gonna turn this down.

Besides, Willie saw Alex fall on his butt less than an hour ago, and if that flashing neon sign that Alex is an uncoordinated disaster of a person didn’t scare him off, maybe this will go okay.

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great,” he says, trying for casual and failing utterly. The anxiety that’s been pressing down on his chest since early this morning has lifted in the laughter and eased under Willie’s sunshine smile, and maybe, just maybe, everything’s going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at greenestcoat!


End file.
